Deputy Mark Ward: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." 

I wish to acknowledge Deputy Mitchell and Deputy Martin Kenny, who introduced this Bill with me on First Stage. I also thank the Minister of State for taking the time to stay for the late shift on a Thursday. I appreciate him taking the time to be here. The thrust of this Bill is to make it more difficult for older, more experienced criminals to groom children into criminality. The cycle of poverty and disadvantage leading to children being vulnerable to grooming by drug gangs is something that we, as legislators, need to break. Our Bill will help address that, and will ensure that the Garda and the Courts Service can charge a criminal with what is effectively the exploitation of our children. It basically targets the grooming of our children into criminality. The legislation is focused on adults involved in criminality and drug dealing who target and coerce children to move and supply drugs for them. For too long, criminals have groomed children in both urban and rural communities right across Ireland. The children in our communities deserve to be protected from this criminality and kept safe in order that they can have a better future. We cannot allow drug gangs to continue to be such a scourge on our communities. This Bill will make it a stand-alone offence for adults to use children in communities for the sale and distribution of drugs. It is simple legislation but if passed, it will have a major impact on our communities. If passed, this legislation will ensure these criminals are held to account and cannot use our children to make massive profits for themselves. Anyone found guilty of this offence will face a prison sentence that fits the crime. 

Older criminals using children for criminal activities is not a new phenomenon in disadvantaged areas. However, there has been a visible increase of it in communities over the last couple of years. Young people are being targeted by older, experienced drug dealers to sell and deliver drugs. Children are being groomed by unscrupulous drug dealers. The children are attracted by the flashy cars, the new runners, the few bob in their pocket and the status of being considered a so-called somebody. Let me tell the Minister of State something and I am sure he will agree with me. These criminals are nobodies. They suck the lifeblood out of our communities and they offer nothing but devastation in return. We need to be proactive rather than reactive and target these young people with the appropriate diversionary services before they end up in the hands of drug dealers. 

There is also a scourge of drug debt intimidation that is foisted on our community. If a young person is caught with a quantity of drugs, then the criminals demand payment. They often exaggerate the price and put mothers and fathers in fear, not only for their own lives but also those of their children, when demanding payments. This Bill would deter criminals from using children to sell or supply drugs, therefore leading to leading to fewer instances of drugs debt intimidation. I look forward to the debate and welcome all contributions and opinions on how we can progress this legislation.

Deputy Denise Mitchell: I am happy to see this Bill being debated on Second Stage today. This Bill is a protection for families, children and communities that face the daily scourge of drug dealers. We have all heard the stories and we have all seen the court reports. It is accepted that despicable drug gangs have been targeting children and exploiting them to move and sell drugs for many years. These individuals will seek out a child or a group of children to do their bidding. Dealers do this knowing full well that if the child is caught holding or moving drugs, the dealers themselves will not be held responsible in any meaningful way. They target these children, who can be really good kids, raised by hard-working families who do not send their children out to do this. From the stories I have heard, I know that some of these children are being enticed to do the dealers' dirty work with the promise of money, mobile phones or even status. There are children who fall foul of these gangs because they are disadvantaged for whatever reason. Some of these kids might already owe a drug debt to these criminals. They may have been targeted because they come from a background of disadvantage but the main point here is that they are just children. The Garda does its best to hold these disgusting individuals to account through the courts but there is simply not enough legislation to cover this crime. The members of the Garda working with these children have said themselves that the targeting and coercion of a child into moving or holding drugs is usually just the first step before the child is sucked up into this sort of criminality. I accept that as a society, we need to examine the underlying reasons as to why children are attracted to this lifestyle. We need to have the conversation about drugs and we need to see the citizens' assembly set up but as legislators, we are responsible for putting things in place that will make it more difficult for these criminals to operate. That is why we need this Bill. 

We need it to offer protection to our children, our neighbours' children and our communities as a whole. 

Deputy Paul Donnelly: I thank Deputies Ward, Mitchell and Kenny for bringing forward this Bill to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act and create a new criminal offence to criminalise the use and coercion of children in the sale and distribution of drugs. The Bill will make it a stand-alone offence for adults to use children for the sale and distribution of drugs. It will make it easier for the Garda to press charges against these adult criminals. I welcome the Bill as a tool to tackle the problem of vulnerable young people being sucked into these vicious criminal drug gangs which will use and abuse them until they are dead or locked up. 

The so-called war on drugs that has been fought for decades has failed. We need to change the way we deal with recreational drug use and those who are addicted to drugs. Until then, we will forever be introducing Bills to tackle the effects of drugs on young and old people of all classes, and specifically their effect on working-class communities. We need a grown-up conversation about this failure to deal with drug use and misuse, and I believe a citizens' assembly is a sensible way forward. That is required sooner rather than later….. 

[For the full debate, click this link to the Oireachtas website]